“In true hearing, the voices of the archangelic realm carry unimaginable ecstasies which overcome the spirit, revivifying springs of harmony within and without.” From A Goodly Company (1933), received from the spiritual spheres by Ethel Le Rossignol.

The Stargazer’s Assistant – David J Smith, David Knight and Michael J York. Eyes closed, ears wide open, we are given freedom to dream the void.
“Music of rare emotional power, of penetrating beauty, with the capacity to extend and enhance its listeners’ understanding; it is, in other words, the real deal.” Oliver Arditi

Alexander Tucker – “[A] mixture of the hauntingly familiar and the unaccountably strange… conjures [a] thrilling sense of disorientation and wonderment.” The Quietus

Joseph Lewis – “Joseph Lewis’ hurdy gurdies chart an alternative folklore of the British Isles. Produced through a rigorous study of ancient craft traditions and folk symbols, these instruments are nevertheless a celebration of an anarcho-democratic and carnivalesque tradition.” Pil and Galia Kollectiv

“Total trip-out ur-drone bliss, like Spacemen 3 jamming with Sunroof!, which if that doesn’t sound crazy good, then you might just be reading the wrong list. Fantastic, spaced out, drone-y, druggy mesmer, that is absolutely and wholeheartedly recommended.” Aquarius Records

The album features an hour of exotica kosmische, and cover art by Leila Dear. Several of the tracks are live jams recorded on one afternoon in 2008, others are studio creations pieced together between 201o and 2013. The music was later mastered by Daniel O’Sullivan.

“In July 2005, a small package was delivered to an address in Stamford Hill, London for the attention of Mr Otto Amon and Mr Solomon Kirchner. The gentlemen who recieved the package have never revealed who sent it to them or what was inside it but a body of urban myth has grown up around the Lapis or Ovoid that was rumoured to have been seen in various locations around London, from Frognal to Fitzrovia.

“We are told that Amon and Kirchner subjected the Lapis to broad and narrow range frequencies in Pythagorean clusters which caused the object to “sing” or “recite”. We are also told that for five or six years, in spite of their efforts, the lustreless surface of the Ovoid could not be broken.

“The object, whatever it was, has never surfaced in the collectors’ market, and its recipients have maintained their silence. Whether their newly released recorded collaboration, Man Woman Birth Death Infinity, affords any clues, we cannot honestly say. more info at Raagnagrok.co.uk

The second of the ICA’s music events suggested by Nathaniel Mellors features performances organised by Junior Aspirin, the record label co-founded by Mellors, Andy Cooke and Frieze’s Dan Fox.

The first part of the evening will be a performance of Terry Riley’s In C. The piece will be performed by Invisible Polytechnic, a loosely classical ensemble with world and experimental music influences.

In C was written in 1964 and is one of the major works of 20th century classical music. Riley, along with Steve Reich, Philip Glass and La Monte Young was one of the founding fathers of minimalism – a musical movement away from the clutches of over-cerebral serial music of the 1950s, embracing repetition, process and consonant harmony.

The second part of the evening sees Socrates That Practices Music performing their new album Further Conclusions Against an Italian Version (BAT). They have been compared to Bauhaus and A Certain Ratio, but more recently Socrates would be better described as a two man metagoth outfit who use samplers, synths, guitars, and drums to explore the occult, shire horses, legal wrangles, and less than confident gardeners.

Junior Aspirin Records will release Invisible Polytechnic’s recording of In C, and BAT, the new Socrates album, on the night.

Using found recordings, a research group from English Heretic have reconstructed the attempted kidnap of Princess Anne by Ian Ball. On the evening of March 20th 1974 Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips were returning from a charity film event in support of The Riding For The Disabled Association, when their limousine was held up along the Mall, by Ball. Eventually tackled by police officers, Ball was arrested. In May 1975, Ball was convicted of attempted murder and kidnap. A diagnosed paranoid-schizophrenic, Ball still remains in detention under the Mental Health Act.

In 2005, Ian Ball set up a website from Broadmoor Hospital. On the site he explained that the kidnap was in fact an elaborate hoax set up by himself, offering 1 million pounds to anyone who could prove it was a hoax. Ball also paid £15 to the Anarchist magazine Class War for an advert to promote his cause. He later sent Class War a letter complaining of their cowardice in refusing to display the advertisement. Class War did actually run the advertisement in issue 90…

In his explanation, Ball claims to be ‘the most dangerous working-class dissenter this country has ever had and is ever likely to have’. At the time of the attempted kidnapping Ball stated his intention was to raise a ransom of 2 million pounds for the National Health Service.

Read more about the project and buy the picture disc LP over at English Heretic

Thanks to everyone who came along on Friday to Weirding Modules at the ICA – it was great to see so many readers, listeners and friends, and a perfect launch for Journal 4. We’ll be uploading some photos of the performances shortly.

Anyone who enjoyed Alexander Tucker’s set might like to check out this new video for the song ‘His Arm Has Grown Long’ from Alex’s new album on Thrill Jockey Records, Dorwytch. It’s a kind of shapeshifting shamanic yeti monster tale that suits his hypnotic music very well.

The first of three music events in association with artist Nathaniel Mellors that reflect his musical influences and personal interest in live performance. This is also, in effect, a launch party for our new titles. Strange Attractor Press books will be available on the night at significant discounts.

Weirding Modules features live transmissions from the Strange Attractor universe including:

The latest Strange Attractor Salon season begins this Thursday, 10 March 2011, at London’s ICA with Stephen Grasso talking about voodoo on vinyl – his presentation is now sold out, but to give you a taste of what’s in store, he’s the incredible Exuma (left) with Dambala.

Stephen’s full length essay ‘Haunted Soundsystem’, on the vinyl legacy of the African magico-religious diaspora, can be found in Strange Attractor Journal Four, published on 14 March. Order direct from SAP and receive a special set of postcards featuring artwork from Joel Biroco, Julian House, Ali Hutchinson and Arik Roper, and a bookmark.

The good folks at Arthur magazine have posted what looks like an entire run of Thurston Moore and Byron Coley’s Bull Tongue columns up on the Arthur blog – you can start wading through them here. As Arthur readers will recall, the Bull Tongue columns were one of the musical highlights of the mag, with Moore and Coley commenting upon a huge and arcane selection of the underground music and culture currently on their radar. Exhaustive, sometimes cantankerous and frequently very funny, Bull Tongue is an invaluable archive of some of the more out-there record releases of the last decade.

Currently on hiatus from print, the Arthur online presence if nonetheless alive and well, with new music, writing, and archival material going up all the time. I’ve also been enjoying their new mixtape (which appears to be named after a line in Roxy Music’s classic ‘Editions of You’?).

Released, as with previous Xylitol releases, across a set of two 3″ mini cds, each painstakingly packaged in a unique custom multi-level sleeve with inserts, small bits of paper, photographs, etc to make for a very special, limited edition.